FUZZY HISTORY IN A FAMILY'S STORIES

A memoir, as a literary genre, is more about how people remember the past than about recording events in history. Brenda Serotte mixes both memoir and history in The Fortune Teller's Kiss.

Drawing from childhood recollections, Serotte maintains an elegant balance between the stories she was told about her Sephardim ancestors' forced migration from Spain in the 10th century and her own life in New York. As "Spanish Jews from Turkey" who speak Ladino, her family settled in the West Bronx, a "minority among minorities." Her story is also an American chronicle in which her family "practiced being Americans but remained Turkish to the bone."

The fortune teller of the title is the author's paternal grandmother, Nona Behora, who kisses her forehead and predicts that that she will get lost but will be found again. Before Serotte's parents were married, the same grandmother also predicted that the firstborn child would be very sick. In the summer of 1954, the 8-year-old Brenda gets lost in Rockaway Beach, spends most of the day with a family of gypsies, and is found again. Then, in the fall of the same year, she contracts polio, a few months short of Jonas Salk perfecting his vaccine.

Serotte reveals what it means to be a "crippled" girl in a family that relentlessly uses good luck charms to keep the "Evil Eye at bay." Women know "how to fix the sick," and girls are expected to grow up and become beautiful brides. Evoking a child's sensibility, Serotte divulges the bleak lowlights of her stay at the hospital where she sees children inside the noisy iron lungs lined up in rows "like cars in a parking lot."

Serotte is keenly alert to how friends and family react to her "sickness." Some will not cross the street or look at her; some will cry, and some will show great love and support. She feels like a foreigner in her own house and a stranger in her own body.

The indeterminacy of family history marks Serotte's memory. Nona Behora is either from Istanbul or Izmir, depending on which version is to be believed. With the family's history "tantalizing in its lack of details" young Brenda learns not to expect "accurate details because stories changed every day." Her relatives tend not to talk about anything "except exotic sultans, harems, and belly dancers." Bearing witness to history, for this family, is less prized than storytelling.

Here, the power of "fuzzy history" resides not in the details but in the storyteller's intent. Serotte's thoughtful and perceptive observations on secrets -- how they make stories possible and feed our imagination--is equally resonant: "There were tales for mealtimes and tales for bedtimes. I devoured them all, and sometimes they devoured me." Her grandmother is among the best storytellers: "... out of her cramped kitchen came the most wonderful meals, and out of her mouth the best stories."

She describes the West Bronx as a place "everyone knew your business, and you knew theirs." When reality is intolerable, Brenda searches for solace in the stories her father used to tell her on their Sunday outings.

Serotte comes to know that stories can also evaporate as if they never happened. After she contracts polio, it "was efficiently extracted from our collective memory, simply by omission. Polio, the P word, was a dirty word nice girls didn't mention and adults had the discretion to avoid." The eradication of her "sickness" confuses her: "it was as if I had lost my place while reading a book and could not find my way back to the story." Perceptions like this shine throughout.

Brenda Serotte is a poet and an adjunct professor at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale. The Fortune Teller's Kiss is an eloquent brief on the transformative powers of stories, giving us permission to enter a private territory and offering the limitless interpretations to which a good memoir lends itself.

MEET THE AUTHOR

Brenda Serotte will participate in a panel with South Florida authors Heidi Boehringer and Mel Taylor discussing their work at 8 p.m. Friday at Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables, 305-442-4408.

Serotte also will discuss The Fortune Teller's Kiss and her poetry during an afternoon tea at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at the Coral Springs Museum of Art, 2855 Coral Springs Drive, 954-340-5000. Reservations required.

Tara Kai is the author of the novel Dar es Salaam. She lives in Miami.

OTHER WORKS

Brenda Serotte's book of poetry The Blue Farm was published by Ginninderra press in 2005. Her poetry and prose have appeared in numerous publications, such as Atlanta Review, Kit Kat Review, Quarter After Eight: A Journal of Prose and Commentary, and Fourth Genre, from which her chapter "Contagious" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. For more information go to www.brendaserrotte.com.